Today’s leaders promise hope and change only to deliver corruption and scandal. We elect bright promising outsiders who go to Washington and immediately become insiders. They cease fighting for the ideals they promised in the campaign and start fighting to keep themselves in power. Who can make things right? Who will help us out of this mess?
With Absalom dead, Joab blows the trumpet to end the battles and the civil war is over. Except David is still in exile. Now we have a guilty nation and a vindicated king, and the question that remains is how to restore the relationship. How do you approach your king after you’ve been sinful or rebellious?
A 16-week Bible study podcast on selected passages from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah from Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta.
2 Samuel 18 is the climatic battle for the throne. But instead of highlighting the ferocity of the battle, the spotlight focuses on David’s anxiety over his son, and how the news of Absalom’s death impacts him, especially when he learns that the price of rebellion is the death of his son. It is a price David cannot bear to pay, but it is a price God pays for us. David’s grief gives us a glimpse of the price our heavenly father was willing to pay on our behalf.
As we’ve studied the rebellion of Absalom, we’ve been asking what we can learn about responding when we sin, understanding the discipline of our heavenly father, and how to respond when suffering unjustly. With 2 Samuel 17 we focus on these questions from God’s perspective.
Study questions, maps, charts, key words, history, background, outlines, and links to help you study the Old Testament books of 1&2 Samuel
How should you respond when suffering unjustly? As David flees Jerusalem, he is used and abused by two members of Saul’s family. We can learn from his example how to bear unjust suffering.
What do you do when you fail in a big way and your failure matters? Your mistake has big consequences for other people? How should you respond? That’s the situation David is facing in our story today.
King Saul’s Family Tree – based on what we know from Scripture from Wednesday in the Word.
The conflict between appearance and reality is the theme of our story today. As we’ll see, what appears to be wisdom and repentance is not.
Narratives are true stories. Over 40% of the Old Testament Scriptures are narratives. Generally, the purpose of a biblical narrative is to show the Lord at work in His creation. Every genre found in the Bible presents unique challenges for understanding. Narratives are no exception. With narratives we think in scenes, plot and character, rather than paragraphs and outlines.
The sins of David’s sons repeat and magnify David’s sin. David’s crime was against the wife of a friend. Amnon sins against a sister. The consequences of the first were death of a husband and baby. The consequences of the second was civil war. But why do the consequences fall so heavily on Tamar?
Krisan Marotta is a Bible teacher and host of Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.